We are "fulltime" RVers, now into our 10th year, who love touring the USA and Canada. You may want to make this blog a Favorite -- or maybe not. For those of you who try to "find" us periodically -- thank you. If you want to contact us, our email addresses are: jerryxshea@gmail.com (Jerry) and cambriabythesea@gmail.com (Mary). We would love to hear from you. Enjoy the life you love. We are!

July 31, 2016

We have been in Cold Spring, Minnesota, from June 8th and will leave on Monday, August 1st. Most of the time we stayed at the El Rancho Manana RV Park, located about 5 miles outside of Cold Spring. Sorry for not publishing any posts, but we truly have been busy with family. I have three sisters and two brothers living in this town, and Lavern (Pennsylvania) and Ron (Minot, North Dakota) and their spouses also visited here during this period.

As a way of catching up with them, we met every Friday at 9:30 am at Perkins for breakfast. Those who could make it did so. Most of the time, there were four or five of us present. Learned stories from them that I hadn't heard before.

We will break our unwritten rule about not including people on our blog as we just spent the whole summer with relatives. So here are some family pictures, together with regular blog pictures.

Dorothy, Mary, Lavern, Tim and Ann at Perkins Restaurant

Ann and Danny at Perkins

The weather was strange, strange even for them. Most days were hot and humid, with heavy thunderstorms, lightening, thunder and even hail a couple of times occurring almost every week. At least twice, we had to get into the shelter at the RV park for tornadoes in the area.

We visited the Granite Quarry near St. Cloud. Intended to get back there, but didn't. Here is a picture we took while at the Quarry.

On the outskirts of town is a beautiful chapel, called Assumption Chapel. The original chapel was built in the late 1850s as a petition for relief of a grasshopper invasion that destroyed many crops. The original chapel was later replaced with a granite one.

Stations of the Cross

We were treated to an afternoon at Terry and Lynn's home on the lake. They picked us up in their pontoon as they live right across the lake from the RV Park at which we were staying.

Tim on the pontoon

Two sets of loons (mother, father and baby) live on the lake -- one set at each end.

Baby Katelyn and her father, Travis

Sun going down on the RV Park side of the lake

Double rainbows over corn field

Beautiful clouds nearly every day in Minnesota

Visited my cousin Chris and his wife, Kathy, and their two granddaughters one day

Had lunch in Minneapolis one day with my nursing classmates (Judy, Mary Ann and Alyce)

Kasi and Dan put on a great brunch when all seven of the brothers and sisters and their spouses were able to get together one Sunday morning.

Lavern and I are the same age from July 15 to July 22 each year, as we are 51 weeks apart in age.

The siblings: Ann, Lavern, Mary and Dorothy

Dan, Ron and Tim

With their spouses (Jerry, Kasi, Mike, Bob, Pinky, Jan, and Dave)

Amber and Adam and boys

Piper and Praire or is it Praire and Piper?

Neil and Ashley with their kids

Dan and Kasi's backyard

Chanti found an empty DQ cup with a little chocolate left in it

Jerry entered a local run and came in second in his age group.

We leave this area tomorrow and are heading to two different spots in northern Minnesota.